Calcutta HC rejects plea for central agency probe in Messi event chaos

Kolkata, Dec 22 A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Monday, rejected the plea for a central agency probe into the "mismanagement" during an event at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata earlier this month involving Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi that ultimately led to chaos and vandalism within the stadium.

The hearing on the public interest litigations demanding a central agency probe in the matter was concluded at the division bench of the Calcutta High Court's Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen on Monday afternoon, and the said bench reserved the order in the matter for the time being.

However, finally, on late Monday evening, the division bench delivered the order rejecting the plea for a central agency probe in the matter.

The division bench said that at this moment there is no reason to believe that the current parallel probes conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of West Bengal Police and the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-appointed committee headed by a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court was not impartial.

The demands in the public interest litigations filed in the matter were that the central agency will probe both the event of chaos and financial irregularities behind the sale of tickets during the event.

The counsels for the petitioners said that the central agency probe in both matters was necessary since the parallel probes conducted by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-appointed probe committee led by a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court and the one by a special investigation team of state police were not reliable.

The counsels for the petitioners also added that, besides the scheduled event of Messi at Salt Lake Stadium, an influential section got him involved in some other unscheduled programmes for which the football legend arrived late at the stadium.

Thereafter, the people who purchased tickets for the event at extremely high prices were denied proper visual access to the soccer star as he was surrounded by several politically influential persons and their family members, who irked the spectators and ultimately led to the chaos and vandalism, they said.

The state government counsel said that Messi's security at the stadium was the responsibility of the Central Armed Police Forces.

The lawyer also detailed the actions taken by the state government in the event of mismanagement and chaos at the stadium.

Finally, the division bench did not accept the argument on behalf of the petitioners and rejected the plea for a central agency probe in the matter.

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